Russia’s largest air carrier Aeroflot says the actions of Ukrainian border guards threaten flight safety after its pilots were repeatedly banned from leaving airport terminals and had to sleep on planes overnight.

The recent case Aeroflot is referring to dates back to March, 12.
After landing in the eastern city of Donetsk, technically ending
their evening shift, the two pilots headed to a hotel, where they
were supposed to rest overnight before their return flight the
next day.

However, the pilots were not allowed to leave Donetsk Airport and
were forced to sleep on the plane.

“They were forced to spend the night on the plane. In
Donetsk, which is the second case, they had to spend a night on
the plane and even in the presence and under the supervision of a
border guard. Of course, no proper rest was possible,”
Sogrin explained.

Three days before that, on March 9, there was the same situation,
but in the city of Kharkov; the flight arrived, pilots tried to
leave the airport, but not allowed to cross the border, were
forced to sleep on the plane.

As a result, the pilots were deprived of normal conditions for
necessary rest between flights.

“They flew evening flights and, under global regulations,
they had to be able to fully relax, i.e. to spend the night in
hotels specially booked for them. This is a standard
procedure,” Sogrin says.

Not executing this “standard procedure” is a violation
of requirements (on crew scheduling and rest periods) set by the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

“Situations when a pilot, and even more so, the aircraft
commander, like the situation in Donetsk, are not given a rest
before a flight is considered one of the major threats to flight
safety,” Aeroflot said, adding that it has already filed a
request to Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry and Russia's federal
air traffic agency Rosaviation.

The latter confirmed that recently flights to Ukraine faced
"unprecedented violation of international law against Russian
citizens - pilots of Russian air carriers - who were not allowed
to enter the country for preflight rest between the
flights." The agency called the situation
“unacceptable” and said it will officially notify
Ukrainian aviation.

Under ICAO requirements regulating crewmembers’ movement in the
country, crewmembers should be given access to a foreign airport
(city) upon presentation of a crewmember ID.

When it comes to the reasons behind such measures, taken by
Ukrainian border control clearly in violation of those
requirements, Aeroflot says, its crew members were not given any.

Neither were Aeroflot passengers (and not only), Russian citizens
who were not allowed to cross the border.

A total 43 of Aeroflot passengers were prevented from crossing
the border with Ukraine in the past few days.

"Over the last days, we had to transport at our own expense
32 passengers who did not have a return ticket from Ukrainian
airports to Russia," Sogrin said, adding that Ukrainian
border guards deny entrance to the country to most arriving
Russian citizens without explaining the reasons. “The question is
who will compensate our losses on transporting of our passengers,
who without being given any reason and who Ukrainian border
guards, in violation of international laws, deny entrance.”

Cases of people being banned from entering Ukraine have also been
reported “on the ground” as well.

In the past weeks, border guards did not let into the country
over 3,500 Russians, according to local media. Ukraine
authorities say this is just because they tightened control on
the border with Russia.

The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said that they are
going to take even tighter measures to prevent Russian citizens
from coming into the country.

“Special attention we will paid to groups of citizens aged
from 20 to 50 years old,” it said.